{"id":12286,"date":"2016-11-04T16:18:11","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T20:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/health-care-without-harm\/"},"modified":"2016-11-04T16:31:09","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T20:31:09","slug":"health-care-without-harm","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/health-care-without-harm\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Care without Harm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Climate change is one of the biggest global health threats of the 21st century, according to a report by the Lancet\/UCL Commission on Health and Climate Change <sup>(1)<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>As climate change alters environmental conditions, the prevalence and global distribution of human diseases are changing, new disease threats are emerging, substantially higher pharmaceutical\/medical device use appears inevitable. This brings both challenges and opportunities for many healthcare companies.<\/p>\n<p>How could these companies help people address the increasing health threats caused by climate change without further damaging the environment? I would like to use Johnson &amp; Johnson (J&amp;J), the company I worked for six years before, as an example to explain.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Climate change is impacting global human health<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to the WHO\u2019s reports on the potential impacts of climate change on public health <sup>(2)<\/sup>, some adverse impacts climate change has on human health may include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>More frequent extreme heat waves and associated air quality issues contribute to and exacerbate <strong>cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Floods, droughts, and contaminated water raise\u00a0the risk of <strong>diarrhoeal disease.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Changes in temperature, rainfall, humidity, flooding and other climatic conditions create\u00a0an opportunity for the spread of vector-borne infectious diseases such as <strong>malaria.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-1-4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12105 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-1-4.jpg\" alt=\"Figure-1: Impact of Climate change on human health (3)\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-1-4.jpg 720w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-1-4-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-1-4-600x450.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><\/strong>Figure 1: Impact of Climate change on human health <sup>(3)<\/sup><\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Why it matters to Pharmaceutical and Medical Device companies?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pharmaceutical and medical device companies are large energy consumers and major emitters, while they are also positioned as the front line of the response to these threats <sup>(4)<\/sup>. This arouses both operation challenges and business opportunities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2.1 Operation challenge: Reducing carbon footprint. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The carbon footprint of healthcare companies is huge. In the UK, for example, around 20% of the NHS&#8217;s carbon footprint is related to pharmaceutical products (according to a 2013 report by the NHS Sustainable Development Unit). At the same time, the risk to the environment of pharmaceutically active by-products excreted by patients is largely unknown. <sup>(5)<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>This raises new challenges for J&amp;J\u2019s business operation. The company needs to consider how to reduce carbon footprint and waste during its business expansion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2.2 Business opportunities: tackling the health impacts of climate change<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Governments and healthcare companies are the front lines of the response to health threats caused by climate change. They need to look into improving access to effective treatments for diseases and conditions that are likely to be exacerbated by climate change, especially in developing world \u2013 for example, Southeast Asia and Africa.<\/p>\n<p>J&amp;J, as a leading company in pharmaceutical and medical device sector, thus has the obligation to tackle the health impacts of climate change, mitigating the consequences of climate change on the health of the world&#8217;s population.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. J&amp;J\u2019s actions to deal with climate change<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>3.1 Build a sustainable health system, develop \u201cGreen product\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A sustainable health and care system works within the available environmental and social resources protecting and improving health now and for future generations. This means working to reduce carbon emissions, minimizing waste and pollution, making the best use of scarce resources, building resilience to a changing climate and nurturing community strengths and assets.<\/p>\n<p>Earthwards\u00ae is the Johnson &amp; Johnson approach for developing innovative and more sustainable products. This approach defines how they think about product life cycles\u2014includes considering opportunities to apply green chemistry principles, improve the sustainability of our packaging, and reducing end-of-product-life impacts through recycling and reprocessing of used equipment.<\/p>\n<p>Within five years of launching Earthwards\u00ae, J&amp;J made significant improvements on 80 products in 2015. The improvements from product and selected products can be seen in the following graph <sup>(6)<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-2-7.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12230 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-2-7-1024x688.png\" alt=\"J&amp;J's \u201cGreen product\u201d\" width=\"640\" height=\"430\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-2-7-1024x688.png 1024w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-2-7-300x202.png 300w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-2-7-768x516.png 768w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-2-7-600x403.png 600w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-2-7.png 1974w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>3.2 Reduce greenhouse gas emissions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The company took actions in many areas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including reducing CO2 emissions, using renewable energy in production, building green buildings, and also reducing shipping-related CO2\u00a0Emissions to minimize transportation impact on environment.<\/p>\n<p>In J&amp;J\u2019s 2015 annual sustainability report, the company mentioned that they realized a 9.8 percent absolute reduction in facility CO2 vs. 2010 baseline, increased on-site clean- technology energy capacity to 54 MWs, and realized 20 percent improvement in vehicle emissions efficiency <sup>(7)<\/sup><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-3-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12207 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-3-1-1024x803.png\" alt=\"figure-3\" width=\"640\" height=\"502\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-3-1-1024x803.png 1024w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-3-1-300x235.png 300w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-3-1-768x602.png 768w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-3-1-600x470.png 600w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Figure-3-1.png 1332w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Move Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Based on the analysis above, I think climate change brings both operation challenges and business opportunities for J&amp;J. The company has realized the great impact that climate change generates on the industry and the company, and has already taken many actions to build a more sustainable and environment-friendly operation model. In the future, I think the company should continue reducing emissions from facilities, R&amp;D, manufacturing and transportation, while at the same time, I believe the company has the obligation <strong>to stimulate the innovation and R&amp;D to respond to health threats caused by climate change,<\/strong> through collaborations with government and other pharmaceutical\/medical device companies within industry.<\/p>\n<p>Word Count: 764<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sources:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">(1) The Lancet: Managing the Health effects of Climate Change,\u00a0<a style=\"color: #000000\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/commissions\/climate-change\">http:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/commissions\/climate-change<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">(2) WHO: Climate change and health, <a style=\"color: #000000\" href=\"http:\/\/www.who.int\/mediacentre\/factsheets\/fs266\/en\/\">http:\/\/www.who.int\/mediacentre\/factsheets\/fs266\/en\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>(3) Impact of Climate Change on Human Health <a style=\"color: #000000\" href=\"https:\/\/toolkit.climate.gov\/image\/505\">https:\/\/toolkit.climate.gov\/image\/505<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">(4) How can the pharma industry fight climate change, <a style=\"color: #000000\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pharmaceutical-technology.com\/features\/featurehow-can-the-pharma-industry-fight-climate-change-4814240\/\">http:\/\/www.pharmaceutical-technology.com\/features\/featurehow-can-the-pharma-industry-fight-climate-change-4814240\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">(5) Time to act: pharmacists must be prepared for environmental changes, <a style=\"color: #000000\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pharmaceutical-journal.com\/opinion\/time-to-act-pharmacists-must-be-prepared-for-environmental-changes\/11138390.article\">http:\/\/www.pharmaceutical-journal.com\/opinion\/time-to-act-pharmacists-must-be-prepared-for-environmental-changes\/11138390.article<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">(6) \u00a0(7)\u00a0 Johnson &amp; Johnson 2015 Citizenship &amp; Sustainable Report, http:\/\/www.jnj.com\/sites\/default\/files\/pdf\/cs\/2015-JNJ-Citizenship-Sustainability-Report.pdf<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Healthcare companies are large energy consumers and major emitters, while they are also positioned as the front line of the response to the increasing health threats. Climate change arouses both operation challenges and business opportunities: How could these companies help people address the increasing health threats caused by climate change without further damaging the environment? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2040,"featured_media":12287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[1218,41],"class_list":["post-12286","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-healthcare"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/climate-change-challenge-2016\/","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Health Care without Harm - Technology and Operations Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/health-care-without-harm\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Health Care without Harm - Technology and Operations Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Healthcare companies are large energy consumers and major emitters, while they are also positioned as the front line of the response to the increasing health threats. 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